1 Golda Meir was born Golda Mabovitz in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1898. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was a child. They settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she attended teachers' college and later became a teacher.

Her first entry into Jewish politics came in 1915 when she joined the Jewish labor party known as Poalei Zion. She married in 1921 and moved with her husband to Palestine in 1921. There, she began a life of committed service to her people, both before and after Israel's founding.

Golda Mabovitz - who changed her name in 1956 to the Hebrew name Meir, which means "to burn brightly" -- became leader of the political department of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. As the department's leader, she actively encouraged and organized the migration of Russian Jews to Palestine. She stayed with the Jewish Agency until the State of Israel was founded in 1948.

She was elected to Israel's first parliament and served as director of a number of Israeli agencies. She was also Israel's ambassador to the Soviet Union (now Russia). In 1969, Meir became prime minister of Israel -- and the third woman in the world to become a prime minister.

As prime minister, she took on problems concerning Arab land Israel took in the Six-Day War of 1967. Political leaders in Israel were divided on how to deal with the land; some thought it best to return the land to Arabs, others fought to keep the land for .....For the complete story with questions: click here for printable